Tanzania’s exiled opposition leader Tundu Lissu claims the Tanzanian government is still lying about the death of President John Pombe Magufuli.
According to Tanzanian’s Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan, 61-year-old Magufuli died from a heart attack on Wednesday evening.
“With deep shock, we announce that today, March 17, 2021, at around 6pm, we lost our great leader and President of the United Republic of Tanzania, HE Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli due to heart complications at the Muzena Hospital in Dar es Salaam. Plans for the funeral are underway. Our country will be in mourning for 14 days and our flags will fly half-mast,” she said on Wednesday.
However, speaking to KTN News, Lissu has insisted that President Magufuli succumbed to Covid-19 complications and did not die on Wednesday as announced by the Vice President.
“Even now in his death his government continue to lie. Magufuli died of Corona. Secondly Magufuli did not die this evening, I had information from the same sources that told me was gravely ill. I have information Magufuli has been dead,” Lissu said.
Lissu, who is in exile in Belgium, has added that he was not surprised by the sad news.
“I have received the news of President John Magufuli’s passing without any surprise, to be honest, I had expected this all along from March 7th when I first tweeted about it,” he said.
Lissu was the first to publicly question the whereabouts and health of the Tanzanian Head of State after he disappeared from the limelight in late February.
“The president’s wellbeing is a matter of grave public concern. What’s it with Magufuli that we don’t deserve to know?” Lissu posted in a tweet late on Tuesday amid wild speculations.
He at the time claimed Magufuli had been flown to Nairobi Hospital and later to India.
“The Man Who Declared Victory Over Corona ‘was transferred to India this afternoon’. Kenyans don’t want the embarrassment ‘if the worst happens in Kenya’. His Covid-19 denialism in tatters, his prayer-over-science folly has turned into a deadly boomerang!,” he posted on his official Twitter handle then.
However, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa denied the claims, blaming the narrative on “hateful” Tanzanians living abroad.
The Chadema Party presidential candidate in the last election says the country needs to move forward and he is ready to return home to be part of it.
“Now that Magufuli has passed, I will personally write a letter to the government and set out our position going forward. And our position is we cannot afford to continue with Magufulism without Magufuli,” he said.
